YASIN J. NASIR

Plant up to 1 m tall, viscid-pubescent. Leaves cauline, 24-40 x 13-25 cm, oblong to broadly elliptic-ovate, cuneate or ± auricled, texture thin. Flowers pink, in axillary and terminal compact corymboid panicles. Calyx 10-12 mm long, oblong, persistent in fruit; lobes unequal. Corolla tube 3.5-4.6 cm long, glandular-hairy without; limb up to 15 cm broad, lobes acute to apiculate. Anthers 3 mm long, oblong; filaments ± 3.5 cm long. Capsule 20 mm long, oblong-ovoid. Seeds less than 1 mm long, angled, minutely ruminate, brown.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Lectotype: Described from America. Hb. Linn. 245/1 (LINN).

Distribution: Native to Mexico and northern S. America.

Widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions. The ‘tobacco plant’ is mainly cultivated in the N.W.F.P. regions of Pakistan on a commercial scale. Tobacco is both smoked and chewed; it contains the alkaloid nicotine, a stimulant, which is harmful to the nervous and respiratory system. Also used for insecticidal purposes. The species is sometimes found as an escape.